Frederick Forsyth

Best-selling author and political commentator

Now it's time for Britain to stand up to the bullies from Brussels, says FREDERICK FORSYTH

As our ill-run country shuffles into the month of September, year of grace 2019, utter chaos prevails among the ranks of those supposed to be governing us. For us mere observers it is like watching not one but a series of slow car crashes about which we can do nothing. But certain clarities do stand out.

One is the defection from the ranks of loyal Tory MPs of 21 renegades. What caused them to betray their party, its leader and their constituents? The only answer appears to be their insistence that “No Deal must be taken off the table”. First things first. No Deal is not a presence, it is an absence.

Related articles

You cannot remove an absence because it is not there to remove. so it’s a code. so let me play the role of Bletchley Park and de-code it.

What it really means is that

If Brussels has a demand of us we must concede it.

I have not heard a single media interviewer ask a leading Remainer this obvious question: is there any British concession, no matter how humiliating, that you would not concede?

I suspect that simple query would leave the renegades dumbfounded because it is unanswerable.

Yet it means what it asks.

Jean-Claude Juncker and Michel Barnier (Image: Getty)

The ass David Cameron called a referendum, lost and resigned (Image: Getty)

Peel away the layers of hypocrisy and No Deal Off The Table simply means that whatever Brussels demands, we have to grovel.

Basically, we have to accept the May scuttle word for word; that is the 585-page list of on-your-knees concessions that Theresa May and her passionately pro-Brussels adviser Ollie Robbins brought back from that city and which the Commons vetoed three consecutive times.

That is now the demand of the Welsh Nats, scots Nats, Lib- Dems and Labour – the combined Opposition to the Tories – plus the new 21 renegades who voted on Tuesday to bring Boris down.

Let’s have a quick glance at recent history.

The first tranche of Tory MPs sacked by Boris Johnson (Image: Express)

Three years ago we had a referendum, brought into being by an Act of Parliament, passed in the Commons by a huge majority, endorsed by the Lords, assented by the Queen.

The question was simple – In or Out.

No conditions, terms to be worked out.

Every party endorsed it – including the passionate Remainers because they thought they’d win it.